Florian Bors – Peoples Party of Canada

Jeff Green | Aug 11, 2021

If it weren’t for COVID, Florian Bors would likely never have left Toronto and certainly would  never have become active in electoral politics.

Yet, here he is, running for federal office in the vast rural riding of Lanark Frontenac Kingston under the banner of the People's Party of Canada (PPC)

“I’ve lived my entire life in Toronto,” he told the News from his new home in Frankford (north of Trenton) but everything changed with COVID. I have 5 young children, and suddenly everything was closed. The kids could not do any sports, they were home from school and could not go out. It was just bananas. For my wife and I, it was pretty much a necessity to move somewhere with some space. It would cost at least $1.5 million for a cookie cutter house in Toronto with a tiny backyard, so we decided to move to the country in Eastern Ontario. It’s only been a short time since we moved, but already we know it's the best decision we ever made.”

COVID is also what brought Bors into the political realm.

“I come from an engineering and IT background, which is logically based, and I have seen so many things that don't make sense when you look at the scope of things. First they said masks were not recommended, they would do no good, then they said you could use a mask if you wanted to, and then they said you have to wear a mask. And then I see certain politicians, like Randy Hillier, Derek Sloan, and how they have been vilified and ostracized for raising questions about the science and quoting doctors who disagree with what’s going on. It made me want to do something.”

Bors said that after SARS in 2003, a pandemic preparedness report was drawn up but that document was ignored in the early days of the COVID-19 response. 

“Instead, the government took the advice of China and WHO [World Health Organization]. Why would we have a preparedness report and not use it? The way I see it there’s experts on both sides. It should be a discussion, but one side is being pushed and the other side is being repressed. Debate it people. When a doctor comes out and says something against the narrative, they get fired. I’m not an expert at all, but I would like to see both sides before making a decision.”

He said that he is not opposed to the vaccine, but that it should be a personal choice. In his case, his entire family became sick with cold-like symptoms in March of 2020, in the first week of the pandemic. They were not tested because at the time only the vulnerable population was being tested.

“But I believe we had COVID, and often with these viruses you develop antibodies, maybe for life. And even if not, we can take our chances because we did not get that sick the first time. We don’t need a vaccine.”

Although he does not live in the Lanark-Frontenac Kingston riding, he said that he has been learning about rural issues since he moved to Frankford.

When I was living in Toronto we never had to worry about our septic systems, or about our water or Internet service, but these are issues we are dealing with now, and the same issues that people in Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston are facing all the time,” he said.

He has been visiting the riding every second weekend since being selected as the candidate for the PPC. With his young family, Bors has been to Perth, Smiths Falls, and Murphy’s Point Park, and he will be visiting Carleton Place and Frontenac County later in the summer.

“There are so many beautiful places in the riding and I look forward to further visits. Mostly I have been listening to what people have to say, not even telling them I am a candidate. I just want to know what people are concerned about.”

He had considered running in the riding where he lives, but there were others interested in running in that riding, “and since I don’t know a lot of people here anyway, I said yes when they offered Lanark Frontenac Kingston.

The PPC has set up a three riding association and website for Kingston and the Islands, Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, and Leeds Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.

The party, which was founded and is led by Max Bernier, was established after Bernier finished a very close second to Andrew Scheer in the leadership contest for the Conservative Party of Canada in 2017. Bernier finished with 49% of the vote in the 13th round of voting, after leading for the first 12 rounds. It calls itself an anti-lockdown party, and advocates for drastic cuts in immigration, an end to official multiculturalism, among other principles. The party received 1.64% of the popular vote in the 2019 Federal election, the first one that it contested. It did not win any seats. In Lanark Frontenac Kingston the PPC candidate Matthew Barton received 1089 votes, 1.78% of the popular vote.